


Count the Shadows

by thought



Category: Doctor Who and related fandoms
Genre: Multi, faction paradox doesn't exist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-22
Updated: 2012-03-22
Packaged: 2017-11-02 08:36:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/367055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thought/pseuds/thought
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This never happened</p>
            </blockquote>





	Count the Shadows

Donna’s not sure the first time she notices it. Thinks she’s going crazy, thinks it must be a side-effect of traveling with the Doctor, ridiculous alien git’s probably gotten inside her brain and mucked about while she’s sleeping.

The second time, she has a witness. The Doctor tells them all, “count the shadows.” And Donna does, very carefully. She’s looking for one more, which isn’t what she finds at all. She pulls River off to the side when The Doctor’s distracted.

“Have you ever noticed that? I mean, you say you know him, so prove it.”

“Noticed what?” River’s already getting irritated.

Donna points.

River blinks, then takes a closer look. “You know,” she says after a moment, “I haven’t noticed that before. Which seems strange, you’d think I would have.”

“Think it’s a Time Lord thing?” donna asks.

River shrugs. “Let’s ask him, shall we?”

The doctor smiles when they walk over to him. “”Getting along, you two?”

“We’ve got a question for you,” Donna says briskly, and points at the floor in front of his feet. “Where’s your shadow gone then?”

For a moment, The Doctor goes very still. Then he’s smiling again, laughing a little. “What’re you talking about? ‘Course I’ve got a shadow. Everyone does, it’s a law of physics and I only break those every other Tuesday.”

And he does, of course he does. Donna feels a little embarrassed, being that The Doctor’s shadow is right there and had obviously been right there all along. “Right. Bloody spaceman, you and your weird alien whatever buggering up my head.”

River is still perturbed. “No, no. It wasn’t there before.”

The Doctor shakes his head. “You’re getting paranoid. It’s understandable. For me to have gained a shadow I would have had to pick up an unwanted passenger, and all my flesh appears intact, wouldn’t you say?” He pokes his own nose in demonstration.

Donna’s brain helpfully provides an image of The Doctor with nothing but bones where his face ought to be, and she shutters.

River song dies within hours.

Donna Noble forgets within weeks.

It’s not The Doctor’s fault. He had no other choice.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on lj 04/21/2010


End file.
